LONDON -- Corruption allegations against Rolls-Royce widened Oct. 31 when a joint investigation by the BBC and The Guardian newspaper accused the British engine builder of being involved in secret payments to supply the power plants destined to equip Hawk jet trainers purchased by the Indian military.
The investigation aired on the BBC Panorama documentary program, titled 'How Rolls-Royce bribed its way around the world,' alleged that the company made secret payments of around £10 million to an unregistered Indian agent as part of the Hawk engine deal.
It said it also found evidence of a suspicious payment into a Swiss bank account in 2007 that may have been linked to the Hawk engine transaction.
The BBC program said the Panorama investigation suggested that Rolls-Royce had paid the £10 million into companies linked with arms dealer Sudhir Choudhrie. The program said Choudhrie, a billionaire who lives in London, is on an Indian government blacklist of people suspected of "corrupt or irregular practice."
The fresh questions over the company's business practices follow a series of corruption investigations in recent times, primarily involving the supply of civil jet engines to airlines in China and Indonesia, and gas turbines sold to Brazilian state-owned oil giant Petrobras for use on offshore oil platforms.
The company is already facing bribery probes from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the UK and the US Justice Department.
So far the Indian ministry of defense has not given any official statement on the new allegations, but a senior Indian MoD official, who asked not to be named, said India's anti-fraud agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has been investigating since 2014 alleged corruption by Rolls-Royce over the supply of aircraft engines to state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
The role of Sudhir Choudhrie is also being probed, the official said.
HAL produces the Hawk under a technology-transfer deal with BAE.
Rolls-Royce declined to comment on the specific allegations but a spokeswoman said in a statement that the "concerns about bribery and corruption involving intermediaries remain subject to investigation by the Serious Fraud Office and other authorities. We are fully co-operating with the authorities and we cannot comment on ongoing investigation.
"We have made it clear that Rolls-Royce will not tolerate business misconduct or inappropriate behaviour of any kind," she said.
Some 123 BAE Systems-built Hawks have been sold to the Indians, with the prospect of more to come. The first deal was first signed in 2004, and there have been top-up orders since then.
Equipped with the Rolls-Royce Adour engine, the Hawk has become the most successful jet trainer of all time, having been sold to Britain, the USA, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and many other nations since it entered service in 1976.
Choudhrie and his son were arrested by the SFO in 2014 in connection with Rolls-Royce. Both denied any wrongdoing and were released without charge.
Vivek Raghuvanshi in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.
